Vic, At this moment there are still quite a number of products which are not fully, or not at all, being covered by an appropriate EC directive and its CTR's and therefore (additional) national regulations may apply. Examples are DECT (partially being covered by means of TBR6/10/22), CT0 phones (national regulations apply) and normal telephones (partially being covered by means of CTR38). The (additional) national regulations which are then necessary to comply with are not going beyond a directive but exist only because there are no European regulations yet to replace those national regulations. As soon as a European directive or CTR has been published to fill in the gaps and comes into force, the corresponding national regulation will cease to exist. Untill that time the marking for such a product is country specific and therefore it would be unlawful to sell it, or at least to put it into service, in a country for which it has not been approved for.
It is indeed not unlawful to import a piece of equipment that meets the requirements of the appropriate EC directive(s) into any EC country. But this only applies to products which are fully covered by European regulations and not to products which only are partially, or not at all, being covered. The fact is that there is still a mix of national and European regulations for a number of products and that for a number of products only national regulations exist. The soon to be published R&TTE directive is supposed to solve this complex situation. Best regards, Pieter Robben At 99/03/05 04:10 PM, you wrote: >Pieter, > >Thanks very much for that very lucid tale of how it is done. > >What a number of people have some trouble with is the notion that what they >need is "A MARK" >and once they have that, they are legal, and that is the end of their >troubles and responsibilities. > >To the best of my knowledge, it is not unlawful to import a piece of >equipment that meets the >requirements of the appropriate Directive(s), and is so marked, into any EC >country. To the best >of my knowledge, unless it is a matter of health and safety, national >requirements can not go beyond what the Directives say. So, selling a >product blessed in the Netherlands in Germany, is lawful. >If it does not work, as the French say, tant pire. However, that is NOT a >good marketing answer >if you count on repeat business. So, regardless of all the legalities, if >you want to stay in business >and get your brandname well established, you'd better meet the Directive >requirements PLUS the national requirements. In North America, not every >piece of gear designed to work with the central >equipment of manufacturer A, works with the central equipment of >manufacturer B. It is no unlawful to sell the gear where it won't work, >but it is bad business. > >Ciao, > > >Vic Boersma >
